Hulu Has Renewed Futurama Through Its Fourteenth Season

Coming as no surprise, Hulu has renewed its revival of the animated sci fi comedy Futurama, clearing it to run through a fourteenth season on the streaming service. That show returned to the small screen in July with its first new episodes in ten years and with most of the original voice cast reprising their roles. It spent five weeks in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings Top 10 (two in the Top 5) and averaged 384 million minutes per week in viewing based on Nielsen estimates which is good for a Hulu original. It has also received good marks from critics and viewers, currently holding an 86% Fresh Rating and 75% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Hulu originally picked up the show for an eleventh season which would consist of twenty episodes broken up into two parts. The second ten episodes of that order are now being referred to as the twelfth season and that will stream at some point in 2024. The renewal includes a thirteenth and fourteenth season for the show which will each have ten episodes.

Futurama, which comes from Simpsons creator Matt Groening, has had a storied airing history, first premiering on FOX in the Spring of 1999. It would run for four seasons on that network before getting cancelled, in part due to the erratic airing schedule the broadcaster imposed on it. The show then moved to Adult Swim where it performed well for that network in late-night reruns. It went through its first revival when four Direct-to-DVD home releases were produced, each with four new episodes. Comedy Central then picked up the show, airing the DVD episodes followed by two seasons of twenty-six episodes each. That cable network chose not to produce any more episodes beyond that point, but Groening indicated that he had hopes the show would continue on a different venue. In February 2022, Hulu announced the return of the show with most of the original cast onboard except for John DiMaggio (who provides the voice for Bender). The plan was to go forward without him when he was insisting all the actors should get an increase in pay. But contract terms were worked out and he joined his fellow cast members for the revival.

The count of seasons for the show can be confusing with Wikipedia indicating that the current season is Futurama‘s eighth while Hulu refers to it as the eleventh. Apparently, the streamer is counting each DVD release as a separate season whereas Wikipedia counts those as the show’s fifth season. But since Hulu owns the rights to the property now and they are tallying it up to eleven seasons so far, I will follow their numbering.

This renewal counts for the 2022-23 seasons, bringing that year’s total up to 39 renewed sci fi and fantasy entries (44% of shows tracked) vs. 42 cancelled and ending shows (48%). You can see the breakdown of the numbers and the full list of shows for the current and prior seasons at our Cancellation Watch Page.

Futurama follows Philip J. Fry, a former pizza delivery boy, who falls into a cryogenic chamber and wakes up in the year 2999. He then joins the misfits working at the Planet Express interplanetary delivery company as he faces the challenges of living in this world of the future. The voice cast includes Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice LaMarche.

The 2023-24 season is just beginning, and there are plenty more renewal and cancellation announcements on the way. You can see the status of all this season’s shows at this link. And be sure to follow this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for updates and breaking news.

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